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.]v»s i»iioaECTs AJNjy g<>d»s results. 



A SERMON: 



PKEACHED BY THE 



Rev. P. r>. GTJELEY, D. D., 



ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 1863, 



DAY OP NATIONAL THANKSGIVING, PRAISE AND PRAYER. 



WASHINGTON, D. C, 

Wm. Ballanttnb 

1863. 



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MAN'S I»ll<>JIi20T© AND «<>r>»S HEiSXJI^TS. 



A SERMON: 



PREACHED BY THE 



Rev. P. r>. GURLEY, D. D., 

ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 1863, 



BElN(i THE 



DAY OF NATIONAL THANKSGIVING, PRAISE AND PRAYER. 



WASHINGTON, D. C, 

Wm. Ballantyne. 

1863. 



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CORRESPONDENCE. 



Washington, D. C, August 10, 1863. 
Rev. p. D. Gurley, D. D., 

Pastor New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. 
Dear Sir : 

The undersigned enjoyed the privilege of listening, on Thanksgiving 
Day, August 6th, 1663, to your Sermon, on thcat occasion, and believing 
that its publication will call attention of the Christian, as also the Patriot, 
to a truer sense of obligation and duty to God and their Country, in the 
present struggle against disorder and rebellion than has yet been felt, we 
therefore respectfully, but earnestly ask a copy for publication. 

Although no formal meeting of the auditory on that occasion has taken 
place, with a view to this request, we feel assured that we give the unani- 
mous opinion and wish of the congregation who listened to the discourse. 
Respectfully and truly, your obedient servants, 
J. E. BRADY, . WM. BALLANTYNE, 

WM. G. PARKHURST, M. P. SMITH, 

JOSEPH HENRY,, - ■- * ' ; JAS. WHITEHILL, 

Z. W. DENHA^, . E. W. FORREST. 



Washington, D. C, August 13, 1863. 
To Messrs. Bkady, Henry, Whitehill, Denham, Forrest, 

Ballantyne, Parkuurst, and Smitk. 
Oentlemen : 

Your note, requesting a copy of my Thanksgiving Sermon for publica- 
tion, is before me. In deference to your united and earnestly expressed 
judgment and wishes, I will, in a few days, comply with your request. 
Should this Sermon have the effect of leading those who read it, to a 
clearer recognition of the hand of God in our national troubles, and to a 
firmer confidence in Him as the Guardian-God of the nation, who chastens 
that He may purify and save us, then my strongest and best hope, in con- 
senting to its publication, will be realized. 

Yours truly, 

P. D. GURLEY, 
Pastor of the N. Y. Avenue Pres. Church. 



SEKlMOlSr. 



MAN'S PROJECTS AND GOD'S RESULTS. 



INTRODUCTIOX. 

The Sermon I am about to preach I have entitled Man's Projects and 
God's Results. It shows the stand-point from which I have been accus- 
tomed to look at our national troubles, and what I have believed, and still 
believe, will be the final outcome and issue of those troubles. I am not a 
politician, in the popular sense of the word ; I never have been : I never 
expect to be. I presume I never ought to be. When, therefore, I speak 
of our national affairs, either in the pulpit or out of it, I speak, not as a po- 
litical partisan, but as a believer in the Triune God, the Father, the Son, 
and the Holy Ghost, and as an humble interpreter of his word and provi- 
dence. I believe this Triune God is in history ; I believe He is in all his- 
tory : I believe His hand and His mercy are exceedingly conspicuous in our 
own national history ; and never more so than in the present eventful and 
perilous crisis : and my confident hope is, that, when the crisis is over, 
and the Divine purpose in permitting it is fully developed and accomplish- 
ed, the nations who now predict, if they do not desire, our ruin, will 
be compelled to say : " the Lord hath done great things tor them ;" and 
our simple yet grateful response will be : " the Lord hath done great things 
for us, whereof we are glad." 



My text to-day is 

Proveebs XVI: 9. 
"A man's heart deviseth his way: hut the Lord directeth his steps." ^ 

Man is a rational, a free, and, therefore, an accountable 
moral agent. He acts from choice, and not by constraint. 
His heart deviseth his way. This is real freedom. It is a 
freedom, of which every man is conscious, and with which 
every man is satisfied. It is the basis of responsibility. Its 
existence is clearly asserted in the Bible ; it is distinctly re- 
cognized in all its various teachings, — in its preceptive re- 
quirements, in its tender appeals, in its words of warning, 
and in the penal sanctions with which it enforces the claims 
of duty. 

But while this is true, it is also true that God governs the 
world : by which we mean that He governs not merely the 
world of matter, but the world of mind, " all his creatures and 
all their actions." His Kingdom ruleth over all. He sits 
upon the throne of universal empire, and does " according 
to His will in the army of Heaven and among the inhabi- 
tants of the earth." Whatever becomes of their projects. His 
counsel stands, and He does all His pleasure. Nay more : 
He accomplishes His fixed and eternal purpose through the 
instrumentality of free, and accountable, and even loicked 
agents. He does it too, without impairing their freedom or 
their accountability. Soio He does it we can not explain ; 
nor need we. It is enough for us to know these facts : — 
first, that man is free ; and secondly, that God governs the 
world without infringing man's freedom. Whether we can 
reconcile these facts or not, is d matter of no importance. 
We know they are reconcilable, because we know they are 
true. We know from the united testimony of consciousness 
and revelation that they are facts ; and it is also evident that 
they are precisely the facts which are asserted in our text : 
" A man's heart deviseth his way : but the Lord directeth 



8 

tis steps," Man devises ; the Lord directs. Man proposes ; 
<3od f/?csposes. Man thinks, consults, plans, acts, and all 
freely ; God controls, limits, orders, overrules, according to 
the good pleasure of His own holy will, and for the advance- 
ment of His own declarative glory. Or, in the language of 
a passage parallel to the text, " There arc many devices in 
a man's heart : nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord, that 
shall stand." 

Man's agency, and God's overruling sovereignty ; man's 
heart devising his way, and the Lord directing his steps ; 
or, in other words, Man's schemes, and God's issues, Man's 
jprojects, and God's results : — this is the subject we have se- 
lected for this occasion, and which we shall now endeavor to 
illustrate and improve, having a becoming regard in the 
whole discussion to the condition of our beloved country, 
and to the probable fruits and consequences of the terrible 
struggle in which, as a nation, we have been engaged for 
more than two years, and in which we mcmj still be engaged 
for an equal, if not a longer, time to come. 

And 1. In the first place, I ask you to look at the first 
(jreat project of human ambition of ivhich we have any account 
in history. The waters of the flood have subsided and passed 
away. The world is re-peopled ; and the whole earth is of 
one language and of one speech. The inhabitants thereof, 
as they journey from the East, form the design of making 
for themselves an illustrious name, and also of founding a 
universal monarchy to which all the people of the earth shall 
be in subjection. This design is expressed in the words, 
" Let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach 
unto Heaven, and let us make us a name, lest we be scat- 
tered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." To central- 
ize power ; to consolidate a government whicli shall control 
the world ; to establish a universal depotism that shall sup- 
press the true religion, and foster falsehood and crime, — one 
great seat of influence and authority, around which all men 
shall gather, and before which all men sliall bow : — this is 
their object, and they spare no expenditure of zeal or labor 



9 

in the ejffort to accomplisli it. But liow sudden and over- 
whelming is their defeat ! And why ? Because He who 
sits in the heavens is against them. It is His pleasure that 
men shall be scattered abroad, and divided into different 
nations. He speaks, and their language is confounded, their 
work ceases, their project fails ; and the very result they 
had feared, and aimed to prevent, is forced upon them by a 
necessity they can neither escape nor resist. Their object 
was one thing; Goirs purpose was another. To lift a tower 
to the heavens, to build a mighty city, to erect themselves 
into an empire which should sweep and sway the world : — 
this was their project : — but, on the other hand, to confound 
their language, to reprobate their ambition, to turn their 
Heaven-daring counsels into foolishness, and to send them 
over the earth in divided clans ; which clans should be the 
beginning and the source of many different nations and many 
varying forms of government ; — this was God's result.^ 
Surely, with such a history before us, we can not fail to see 
and to feel how true it is, that " A man's heart deviseth his 
way : but the Lord directeth his steps." No doubt, those 
Babel-builders felt strong in the beginning of their enter- 
prise ; they were also united ; perhaps they were honest ; 
perhaps they verily thought they were doing a great thing 
for the cause of humanity and good government ; and, it 
may be, they were very confident of success ; but there was 
just one consideration which stamped their scheme with folly 
as well as wickedness, and made its defeat as certain as des- 
tiny itself. It tvas antagonistic to the plan and ptirpose of God. 
True, their hearts devised it with ardor, and their hands pur- 
sued it with vigor ; but success was out of the question, be- 
cause it was not in harmony with the mind of Him who 
governs the world, and who directed the issue, as He directs 
all issues, not according to the drift of man's devices, but ac- 
cording to the promptings of His own unerring wisdom, and 
the tenor of His own eternal " purpose according to the coun- 
sel of His will." 

2. Again — Look at th^ hintory of Joseph and his brethren. 



10 

Joseph is the favorite child of his father. His brethren see 
it, and are filled with enmity against him. This enmity in- 
creases from day to day, till at last they conspire to take his 
life. Through the interposition of Reuben his life is spared, 
and through the counsel of Judah he is sold to a company 
of Ishmaelites who carry him into Egypt. This is the sim- 
ple history of the feelings and the conduct of Joseph's breth- 
ren. They envy him : they hate him : it is in their hearts 
to kill him : at length they sell him for twenty pieces of sil- 
ver, and report to his father that an evil beast has devoured 
him. This was their device and their work, and an awful- 
ly wicked device and work it was. But what was God's 
design in permitting it ? Let the inspired history answer. 
Joseph is sold a second time to Potiphar, an ofl&cer of Pha- 
raoh : in a few years, by a wonderful connection and com- 
bination of providences, he becomes viceroy of the whole 
land of Egypt : at his suggestion, and through his instru- 
mentality, corn is gathered and laid up in store against a 
time of famine : that time arrives : the distress occasioned 
by it is great, not only in Egypt, but in all surrounding 
countries : at length Jacob, with his children and his chil- 
dren's children, goes down into Egypt to reside : through 
Joseph's instrumentality they obtain the best of the land for 
a possession : in a century or two their posterity becomes a 
great nation : and that nation is the Church of God : yes, the 
Churcli of God, with whose history are associated the birth 
and the mission of Moses, the plagues of Egypt, the divi- 
ding of the Eed Sea, the giving of the law at Sinai, the fall- 
ing of manna from heaven, the pillar of cloud and of fire, 
and all those wonderful events which mark the progress of 
the Jewish nation for more than a thousand years, give to 
the glory of Jehovah some of its brightest illustrations, and 
constitute the subject of a vcr}!- considerable portion of those 
Divinely inspired Scriptures which we have in our hands, 
and which are able to make us wise unto salvation through 
faith which is in Christ Jesus. Joseph's brethren simply 
designed to gratify their wicked passions : to put Joseph out 



11 

of fhe way : — this was their project : — but what was tlie pur- 
pose of Hun whose throne is in the heavens ? To preserve 
a seed to serve Him, and to become the keepers of his truth 
and of a pure religious worship : to raise up a people for his 
own glory, and train them in the school of affliction, and 
lead them through the sea and through the wilderness with 
signs and wonders never to be forgotten: to give to them, 
and ihnmyh them, to their posterity, a Divine Revelation 
which should be a lamp to the feet and a light to the path 
of his saints in every age : — this was God's result. How 
little did those envious brethren know, when they closed 
that cruel and infamous bargain with the Ishmaelites, what 
they were doing, or rather, what God was doing through 
them. They were moved by envy : He, by love. 2'/iey had 
one purpose : He, another^ They meant it for evil : Se, for 
good. They aimed to destroy life : ffe, to save it. They 
devised their way, formed their plan, executed it : and, 
wicked as it was, God made it the first link in a chain of 
events which preserved the church from extinction, and fur- 
nished materials for a history teeming with the richest ex- 
hibitions of His glory and His grace. 

3. Again — Look at the history of our Saviour^s crucijixion. 
A Jewish mob, scribes, and chief priests, and elders of the 
people, filled with prejudice and rage, are determined to 
take the life and thereby crush the cause of the despised 
Nazarine. In Judas, one of His own disciples, they find an 
instrument suited to their purpose. For thirty pieces of 
silver he betraj-s Him into their hands. They hurry Him 
through a mock trial, suborn witnesses to testify against 
Him, and pronounce Him worthy of death. They clamor 
for his crucifixion, and when the Roman Governor finally 
yields to their importunity, straightway they load Him to a 
place called Gethsemane. And "there they crucified Him." 
See Him now as He hangs on the cursed tree. He is a dis- 
figured and a bleeding corpse. His enemies have accom- 
plished their purpose: their plan has reached its consumma- 
tion: their malice is gratified. But what have they done ? 



12 

Ah, what have they done? Wicked instruments, under 
the sway of passions set on fire of hell, they have unwitting- 
ly fulfilled the predictions of prophecy — the predictions of 
their own Holy Scriptures — and accomplished an event more 
fruitful in blessings for a guilty race, than any other ever 
was or ever shall be. True indeed, they were murderers in 
heart and in fact, murderers of the Prince of life, and, in 
the whole transaction, they were influenced by motives as 
dark and dreadful as the pit : true indeed, it was not their 
intention to fulfil the predictions of prophecy : yet they did 
fulfil them. It was not their intention to show that Jesus 
was the true Messiah by filling up the picture which Isaiah 
and other Old Testament Prophets had drawn embracing 
the minute particulars which should attend His death : yet 
these very particulars they did furnish, and all in confirma- 
tion of his claims. It was not their intention to execute the 
"determinate counsel" of God respecting an event more 
momentous in its influence upon the immortal destinies of 
men, than any other in the annals of the universe ; and yet 
they did execute it, and that two with " wicked hands." 
To gratify a hellish thirst for blood : to wreak their ven- 
geance upon one who had exposed their hypocrisy and told 
them the truth : to crush His existence, His claims, and the 
prospects of his followers by a single blow : — this was their 
object : and, when the last nail had been driven into that 
cross, they thought they had accomplished it : but how were 
they mistaken, and how different was God's purpose from 
theirs! To lay upon the altar of Divine justice a sacrifice 
which should atone for sin, and open a door of hope to a lost 
and guilty world : to prepare the way for lifting uncounted 
millions from the woes of the second death, and making 
them the heirs of glory : to spoil the principalities and pow- 
ers of darkness, and people the realms of light with ran- 
somed sinners washed in atoning blood: to make an exhi- 
bition of blended justice and mercy which should attract 
the gaze of the universe, shed new lustre upon the Divine 
character, and furnish a theme for gratitude and praise in 



1?> 

neaven, wliicli should be Ibrever enrapturing and forever 
new : — this was God's purpose : this was the resuU at which 
He aimed : the result He actually accomplished to the praise 
of the glory of His grace. In all this transaction, so interest- 
ing and memorable, how clearly and fully does the truth of 
our text appear, that though " a man''s heart deviseth his luay, 
yet the Lord directeth his steps^ Man plans and acts freely, 
and, it may be, wickedly, but God, by an all-pervading and 
a mysterious agency, so directs and limits his actions, that 
they shall subserve His own holy purposes, and so shapes 
and controls the issues thereof, that they shall redound to 
the furtherance of His kingdom and glory. 

4. And now, leaving these Scriptural illustrations, let us 
look, for a moment, into the records of a more recent his- 
tory, and see how impressively that also will teach us, that, 
while " man's heart deviseth his way, the Lord directeth his 
steps." Why is it that the British are masters to-day of so 
great a portion of India ? How came they there ? I an- 
swer, commerce, the splendid commerce of which India has 
always been the theatre, originally induced them to seek a 
footing on its " coral strand." At first they built factories 
along the coast and fortified them to protect themselves 
against the violence and extortion of the natives. This step 
soon led to territorial acquisitions : and the history of those 
acqui^tions has been written in blood from the days of Hy- 
der Ali down to the present moment. War has followed 
•war, and one victory after another has been achieved, at a 
fearful sacrifice of life, till now almost the entire country is 
under British domination. Wealth, commerce, power, — 
these are the motives which have urged the English onward 
from the beginning : these are the rewards for the attain- 
ment of whicli they have encountered and overcome the 
most formidable difiiculties, and shed their blood upon a 
thousand fields of conflict and of death. But what has been 
Ood''s purpose in permitting that immense country to be- 
come subject to their sway ? Ah, that is a very different 
question. His purpose is just beginning to appear, and the 



14 

wondering nations of Christendom are just beginning to 
comprehend it. You see it in the protection afforded by 
British arms to our missionaries and missionary stations. 
You see it in the large and promising fields they have open- 
ed from year to year, and some quite recently, for mission- 
ary labor. You see it in the probability, which is becom- 
ing stronger every year, that the introduction of European 
science, and customs, and arts, and civilization into India 
through the agency of British enterprise and power, is des- 
tined to shake its long-established systems of idolatry to 
their very centres and foundations, and prepare the way for 
Christianity to reach, and enlighten, and elevate, and bless, 
and save its vast and degraded population. Let it be ad- 
mitted that the history'- of all the British have done there is 
stamped with the impress of cupidity, usurpation, and blood : 
let it be admitted that their motives have been basely sel- 
fish, and their measures worthy of universal reprobation : — 
still God is manifestly overruling their movements there for 
the production of the most desirable and glorious results — 
results which will hasten the latter day glory of Zion and 
the universal reign of righteousnes and peace.. Surely no 
one, at the present day, can intelligently contemplate the 
subject of British sway in India, in all its past history and 
present aspects and bearings, without seeing new force and 
significancy in the words of our text, "A man's heart de- 
viseth his way ; but the Lord directeth his steps." Man 
lays his plans and prosecutes them with energy, perhaps un- 
der the influence of the basest passions ; but God orders the 
issue for his own glory ; — for the furtherance of the gospel 
and the salvation of a dying world. It is the security of this 
world, and of all worlds, that such a good, and wise, and 
wonder-working God is on the throne of the universe. 
Otherwise, what issues of darkness, and terror, and ruin, 
would not the madness of men and devils bring to pass ! 

Illustrations similar to those already presented, and to the 
same purpose, might be greatly multiplied. It would be 
easy, for example, to show that God has overruled tlie slave 



15 

trade, despite of its horrors, and slavery, despite of its evils, 
for the good of Africa; by sending back to its benighted 
shores the descendants of those once taken thence in chains ; 
sending them back, with the lamp of life in their hands, and 
the grace of life in their hearts, to kindle there, in the midst 
of prevailing darkness, the lights of science, civilization, 
liberty, and true religion. "Who of us, indeed, as we look 
npon the colonies of Liberia, remember from whence they 
sprung, and see in them the last and best hope of the degra- 
ded millions around them, can forbear to exclaim in the lan- 
guage of an inspired Apostle, " O the depth of the riches 
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! How unsearch- 
able are His judgments, and his ways past finding out !" It 
is, however, unnecessary to say more in the way of illustra- 
tion. The truth announced in the text is, I trust, plain : 
you see it: you understand it. "A man's heart deviseth 
his way : but the Lord directeth his steps." Man acts freely ; 
he may act wickedly, and with the very worst designs ; — but 
God orders the result ; brings light out of man's darkness, 
order out of his confusion, causing even his wrath to praise 
Him, while the remainder of wrath He restrains. This is 
the great truth which we have deemed it appropriate to set 
before you to day ; because it is in the view of this truth, 
and under its influence, that we are led to believe and to say 
with confidence : There is hope for our hleeding country. He 
who confounded the language and defeated the ambitious 
designs of the builders of Babel, can confound the counsels 
and defeat the designs of those who would divide and thereby 
ruin this nation. He, who provided sustenance and redemp- 
tion for His people by the sale of Joseph into Egypt, can 
provide deliverance for us by methods equally mysterious, 
and yet equally effective. He, who made the crucifixion of 
Jesus by wicked hands the most glorious event in the annals 
of the universe, can turn the dark night of our national ad- 
versity into a morning of gladness and a day of splendor 
such as neither this nor any other nation has ever seen be- 
fore. He, who, by British avarice and arms, has prepared 



16 

the way of the Lord in India, can, even by rebellion and 
civil war, prepare for us, and prepare us for, a high and 
splendid destiny. He, who is overruling slavery for the good 
of Africa, can overrule the infatuation both of the enemies 
and the friends of slavery for the purification of the country 
by blood, and its consequent rescue from ruin. We must 
not be faithless, but believing. God is on the throne, our 
fathers' God and our God. He has ever been manifestly and 
marvellously the Guardian-God of this Republic. And, 
though we have offended Him, we can not believe He will 
leave us to perish. He may chastise, but He will not destroy 
us ; He may purify, but He will not consume us. At least, 
this is our abiding hope and confidence, and has been ever 
since our beloved land first felt the scourge of this dreadful 
and bloody strife. We have regarded it as discipline, and 
not destruction ; — a fearful discipline to be sure, but merited, 
needed, and destined in the end so to purge awa}'- our sins, 
that we shall become, in a fuller, loftier sense than ever be- 
fore, that united and happy people, whose God is the Lord. 
It would certainly be very much in keeping with what we 
have seen in this discourse, and learned from a thousand 
other sources, of God's wonderful works and ways in our 
world, if He should, sooner or later, so shape events and 
opinions, and so direct their course in this country, that the 
very efforts which have been made to divide us, should lead 
to " a more perfect union ;" that the very scheme which was 
formed to perpetuate and extend slavery, should issue in its 
overthrow; that the very ravings of fools and fanatics 
should bring the generality of the people to calm reflection 
and just conclusions ; that the very devices of treason should 
develop and extend a style of patriotism which nothing can 
corrupt, or turn away from its purpose of saving an imperiled 
country ; and that the very struggle in which wo arc en- 
gaged, the costly, costly struggle to preserve our nationality, 
should finally terminate in putting that nationality upon a 
foundation so broad, and deep, and sure, that it never again 
can be imperiled or impaired. The sigTis, wc think, are 



17 

many and iinmistakeable which point to these results. It 
may take a long time to reach them ; but, I believe in my 
heart to-day, they luill he reached at last. Many mistakes may 
be made by the National Congress and the National Execu- 
tive, and many also by our Generals in the field ; many re- 
verses may be experienced by the national arms ; many bit- 
ter and embarrassing controversies may occur among those 
who are honestly devoted to the preservation of the Union ; 
many new and troublesome questions may arise ; many par- 
tisans, for partisan purposes, may charge their opponents 
with treason ; many wily, and selfish, and unprincipled lead- 
ers may spring to the surface, and cry, " Lo, here," or "Lo, 
there is salvation ;" sectionalism, and ultraism, and many 
other detestable isms may do incalculable mischief before 
they breathe their last ; much additional blood may be shed, 
and many additional tears may be shed, before the return of 
peace ; — there may be changes, and disappointments, and de- 
lays, and perilous emergencies, of which as yet we have not 
dreamed ; unexpected conflicts may arise at home, and 
threatening sounds may be heard from abroad ; the hearts 
of men, here and there, good and bad, loyal and disloyal, 
may be very busy devising their ways ; and some of their 
devices may be very strange, and some very absurd, and 
some very wicked : — but the comforting assurance is this, 
The Lord loill direct their steps : He will determine the issues ; 
and it is our confident hope and belief to-day, that Se loill 
determine them in favor of the nation — in favor of its iinity and 
life, its security ccnd strength, its integrity and glory. 

We have never believed, nor do we ever expect to believe, 
that two separate and independent confederacies can exist in 
peace between the Northern Lakes and the Southern Gulf, 
between the sources and the mouth of the Mississippi. God 
manifestly made the vast country lying between these boun- 
daries to be one. Its configuration is such, its rivers and 
mountain ranges are such, its various and mighty interests 
are so connected, and intertwined, that it demands one super- 
vision, one regulating energy, one benign, and wise, and pa- 



18 

ternal government. " Wliat tlierefore God hath joined to- 
gether, let not man put asunder." We believe this is a case, 
where, what He has joined together, can not be permanently 
put asunder. Our Southern brethren, for so I must still re- 
gard and denominate them, are, in the madness of offended 
pride and passion, struggling to achieve an impossibility ; 
and, unless they are stronger than Omnipotence, however 
brave and enduring they may be, such an achievement is 
beyond their ability. that they could see this ; that they 
could see it without delay ; — then we might hope for a speedy 
and a permanent peace. But, whether they see it soon or 
not, and Avhether any of us live to see the end of the war or 
not, the final result must be, that the country will come back 
to its normal condition, — a condition of unity, covered by a 
single flag, and that flag none other than the star-spangled 
banner, — 

" long majj it wave 
O'er the laud of the free and the home of the brave." 

And when, as the issue of our present struggle, that grand 
consummation is attained, as attained it will be, and the na- 
tion springs up from its depression, girded with new 
strength, covered with new glory, and re-established upon a 
foundation of liberty and righteousness which can not be 
moved, then, what a new, and impressive, and most mem- 
orable illustration will be given to the world of the truth 
asserted in our text, " A man's heart deviseth his AVay : but 
the Lord directeth his steps." Man j^roposes : God c//.<poses. 
Man pursues his ambitious schemes with ardor, and boasts 
that his success is sure : but the counsel of the Lord, that 
shall stand. Man raises a traitorous hand against his coun- 
try : God so directs the blow, and the repelling forces, and 
all the ensuing and protracted conflict, that, in the end, the 
country is saved, and more than saved : it is elevated, and 
purified, and prepared, as never before, for a blessed mis- 
sion and a splendid destiny. Our faith as to the certainty 
of this issue, rests, not in the wisdom of man, not on the 
policy or the prospective triumph of any political party, but 



1'^ 

on the power of God, and on the tokens of His favor to the 
nation as we see them in all its past history, and in the re- 
cent events, successes, and triumphs, which are evoking our 
thanks and our praises to-day. " The Lord hath done great 
things for us : whereof we are glad." Our hope is that He 
will continue to do great things for us. Let us see His hand, 
and acknowledge His goodness, in every event which favors 
the national cause, and promises the restoration of the Union 
and of peace : and let us not forget or neglect to praise Him. 
And, while we praise Him, let us also approach Him as sup- 
pliants, committing to Him all our imperiled interests, and 
all our brave and patriotic soldiers on the land and on the 
sea, and all who are sick, or wounded, or suffering, or be- 
reaved, or drawing nigh unto death, and all who stand in 
positions of influence and responsibility : — every interest, 
and every anxiety, and every burden that presses upon our 
grateful, yet solicitous, hearts to-day, let us cast it on the 
Lord, and He will sustain us. In every thing, by prayer 
and supplication, with thanksgiving, let us make known our 
requests unto Him, and then we may confidently hope for 
the continuance of His favor till these calamities be overpast. 
God is our refuge and strength. To Him we must perpetu- 
ally make our appeal for help and comjjlete deliverance. 
Ma}'" He bring our every heart to-day into warm and perfect 
sympathy with the heart and prayer of the Psalmist : — "Out 
of the depths have I cried unto thee, Lord. Lord, hear my 
voice : let thine ear be attentive to the voice of my suppli- 
cations. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquity, O Lord, 
who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that 
thou mayest be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul doth 
wait, and in His word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the 
Lord more than they that watch for the morning : I say, 
more than they that watch for the morning :" — and while 
we thus pray and wait for the salvation of God, let us also 
join, with all our hearts, in the prayer suggested to us by 
our honored Chief. Magistrate, that, God, by his Holy Spirit, 
" will lead the ■« hole nation, througli the paths of repentance 



20 

and submission to the Divine will, back to the perfect en- 
joyment of union and fraternal peace." Hasten that blessed 
consummation, thou God of providence and grace. So we 
thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks 
forever : we will shew forth thy praise to all generations. 
Amen, and Amen. 




N, 



LIBRfiRY OF CONGRESS 



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